Well,yesterday while producing i thought that it would be great to touch knobs,twist it and toy with sounds. And as a still not a production guru it is too early (and expensive) to get analog synth .

So i wanted to ask you for recommendation,hint,as im total newb in this area.
I want to buy a controller that will enable me to control my vst synths,twist knobs and stuff.It must be handy,meaning its use/configuration wont be a black magic. And it must quite easilly work with vst's.

I will add,that i work in ableton live.And if you suggest something guys please let it be reasonably priced,that would be my first controller,and also im a student,so still kinda on a budget as my work doesnt supply all such needs yet :(

yeah i seen those mini controllers,but i dunno how much limited is their functionality to those more expensive ones. are they "less" intelligent,meaning they do not handle so good vsts ,or it is just a matter of additional knobs,pads etc ?

Search the forums about automap and judge for yourself. The thing I hated was the automatic mapping was not useful in many cases because it maps parameters in the order they are laid out in the UI. You end up switching pages so much its truly annoying. It sounds useful but in practice its easier to just create custom mappings for the most commonly used parameter.

Also it creates DUPLICATES of every plugin in your DAW. So when you go to select a plug in your DAW you have an automap and a non-automap version. If you have a rather long list of plugins, the list is now twice as long. Very annoying.

Plus it runs a program in the background thats the automap "control panel". Hate that.

There are other problems with it too, just search here before you buy.

I don't personally mind automap, and it's gotten better in version 4. Still not the holy grail I think many were hoping for, but not a bad feature on an otherwise excellent product.

If you do decide to go Novation, my suggestion is to get the ReMote Mk1 on the used market. Having 2 screens is invaluable, and you can find them for a song (I got mine for $100 on craigslist, opened but never used).

Here's a relevant post I made in another thread (mostly just wanted to try out post recycler )

Pros:
>A lot of control in a small surface area
>Nice keybed
>2 screens
>Automap can come in handy
>Cheap (I paid $100, used but basically brand new)
>Bus powered
>Plenty of MIDI on the back
>Joystick mod/pitch bend looks cool and is a fun alternative to wheels

Cons:
>Not the most intuitive thing
>Only 1 screen on the SL mk2 (mk1 has been discontinued but you can find them used)
>Expensive (compared to other brands, if you buy new)
>Automap can be a huge PIA
>It's not a tank, but it hasn't failed me yet (~1 yr)
>Drum pads are worthless
>Everyone has their own idea of what a keybed should feel like

Niggles:
I wish I'd bought more than 2 octaves, but I'll probably keep this for jams and pick up a larger Mk1 as my studio controller.

In short, if I had to I'd replace my Mk1 with another Mk1, but be sure to check out competing products since you may get along better with them (Akai, Korg, Roland, other Novations).

Automap won't easily map to Abletons native plug ins or instruments nor does it have Mackie Emulation mode (which lets you use the controller to easilyu control your mixer). Plus they just seem to make the software worse every update. It was great in version 3x but 4x is so buggy and the (automap) automation recording in Ableton is now terrible, maybe there's a video of how bad it is on youtube.

These are solid, well featured controllers, plus the knobs are nice and fat and easy to grab and you have proper mpc drum pads. 12 knobs is clearly 50% better than 8 as well. Plus it has Akai Pro on it so you can pretend you're Timbaland or one of the Wu-Tang clan.

plenty of faders and buttons...plus a crossfader...and the extra keys came in handy. I preferred the axiom keybed, but not by much (and thats purely personal)...can be found for cheap..I think I picked mine up from c'list for $80, which left me enough cash to buy an MPD (ive found drum pads on keyboards mostly useless)

These are solid, well featured controllers, plus the knobs are nice and fat and easy to grab.

I agree with this. The knobs on the Akai are quite solid.

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and you have proper mpc drum pads.

Disagree with this though. Those pads are mushy and unresponsive; the only way to make them useable is to either replace them with one of the aftermarket products or do the tape mod. Neither is that hard/expensive to do, but I wouldn't consider the pads a selling point as they come, so you have to take that into consideration when you're making your decision.

Of course, the novation pads are crap as well (the ones on the Impulse are better, but that range has its own problems), which is why I eventually said "fuggit" and bought Maschine.

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12 knobs is clearly 50% better than 8 as well.

I don't know where this is coming from, the novation clearly has 16 knobs to map to your heart's content (if you choose to ignore automap which, understandably, some will) and the faders can double as knobs as well.

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Plus it has Akai Pro on it so you can pretend you're Timbaland or one of the Wu-Tang clan.

I don't know where this is coming from, the novation clearly has 16 knobs to map to your heart's content (if you choose to ignore automap which, understandably, some will) and the faders can double as knobs as well.

damn guys thx,now im at work so gonna browse a bit as i have some spare time

I live in Poland and we dont have craigs list,though we have other such sites with used things. But it is hard here to get a nice ,used gear here (people are not that slutty here as simply they dont earn much :( )
im starting to check some reviews and vids on youtube o Your suggestions lads